25February2010
Navin Minihomer GPS Position Finder Review
Posted by Rob_Nunn under: geotagging; reviews.
When I first looked at the Navin Minihomer, I wasn’t that impressed. You’re reading the blog of a guy who used to sell GPS Satellite Navigation equipment for a living. I’m used to all the bells and whistles – 3d maps, voice recognition, bluetooth, speed-camera warnings and everything else. The Minihomer GPS Position Finder has none of this.
Then I actually used it. I charged it up with the supplied (power only) USB lead, set up the electronic compass, put in the time zone, then went outside and stored a location – my drive way. Then I simply walked around the block, watching as the Navin kept pointing me home, with the distance increasing the further I walked.
I took the Navin Minihomer on a business trip. I parked up at the hotel, recorded my position, then made my way to the meeting. That night I used the Navin to point me the right way back to my digs. Very, very simple and very, very reliable.
Think about this: You’re going on a photowalk, perhaps visiting a city or part of the countryside you’re not completely familiar with. You park up, get off the train or at the bus stop and use the MiniHomer to record your position. You wander off, shooting away, perhaps using the remaining four memory points to record way-points of where you are going. When you’re done you’ve got no idea about the way back, so you just turn on the Navin and it’ll point you in the right direction back to where you started.
Don’t get me wrong, this little GPS device isn’t like a Garming eTrex hiking Sat Nav. It won’t record a “bread-crumb” trail for you to retrace your steps exactly, it just points you straight towards the positions you’ve recorded with an arrow on the back-lit LCD screen, but it is very easy to use and it’s small enough to fit on your key fob so you’ll never lose it.
With the right reference material you could use the built-in electronic compass to point towards where the Sun is rising so you’ll be ready for that shot. You can also download software (at a small extra fee) from Navin’s website to use it as a GPS Data Logger, so that you can geotag your photographs.
In conclusion, the Navin Minihomer is a great little GPS gadget that is small enough to attach to your key-ring, that can be with you all the time, that you can use to store your position so you can find your way back. Simple, straight-forward and easy to use. Recommended.
(Price and retail outlets TBA, keep an eye on Navins website).
Cheers, Rob.
30May2008
Comparing Different GPS Photo Taggers and Geotaggers
Posted by Rob_Nunn under: geotagging; reviews.
If you want to start using a GPS device to Geotag your pictures, (that is insert your lattitude and longitude (and height) into them for displaying on a map), there’s quite a few different options to look at.
I’ve knocked together a quick video looking at three different models, that Geotag your images, but all in a slightly different way: The Amod AGL3080, The ATP Picture Tracker, and the Qstarz Platinum.
30May2008
Amod AGL3080 GPS Phototracker / Geotagger Review
Posted by Rob_Nunn under: geotagging.
This little beauty arrived via Fedex from Taiwan a couple of weeks ago, and I’m pleased to say that the AMOD AGL 3080 Photo Tracker is a great little Geotagger – simple and easy to use, a great accessory for any Photographers camera bag – and because it behaves like a USB Drive, it’s compatible with Mac and PC.
